ST MIRREN manager Danny Lennon has urged his players to ‘mind the gap’ tonight as they try to claw back Kilmarnock’s lead in the race to finish as ‘best of the rest’ in the SPL.

The Buddies head to Rugby Park knowing that a win will leave them just a single point behind the Ayrshire men, with two more league games left to play.

However, defeat for Lennon’s team would end their hopes of securing seventh place at the end of the season . . . and would leave them facing a real battle to even beat Aberdeen for eighth spot.

It all means that a game which some neutrals may see as a relatively meaningless end-of-season contest will have plenty of added spice.

And, while Lennon will demand 100 per cent commitment from his players, he has also warned them not to expect their Killie counterparts to have downed tools.

The Saints gaffer, who staged a spying mission on Saturday as he went along to Rugby Park to see the home team edge out Inverness in a 4-3 thriller, told Express Sports: “Kilmarnock are a very good side. They have had another fantastic season in terms of the points they have accumulated so far and there is, of course, their wonderful League Cup achievement to consider too.

“I was at their game on Saturday and you have to admire the way they go about their business.

“I always look forward to these games because they involve two teams who will try to play the game in the correct manner.

“Ourselves, Kilmarnock and Aberdeen will all feel that we are in with a shout of finishing in seventh place but, hopefully, we’ll be the ones who do it.”

Lennon also realises that, if his players do go on to secure that seventh spot in the league table, they will become record breakers in the process.

He added: “There has been very good progression at this football club and the aim is to keep doing that, to keep going forward.

“There are a few top-flight records going back more than 20 years that we could break by finishing in seventh.

“We could have our best goal return in the SPL since 1989 and, if we get our goal difference down by one, then it will be our best since 1986 – and that’s older than some of my players!

“There are two or three other stats that I have told the players about so, in terms of where we want to be, we have got a chance of being remembered for something for years to come.”